Impersonator Darren Farley who found fame impersonating football icons on social media is mastering some new characters.
Photo by Gavin Trafford.

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A tap on the shoulder as he walked through the hospitality lounges of Anfield made Darren Farley wonder if, for once, one of his famous football impressions had been ruled offside.

“I turned round and it was Brendan Rodgers,” laughs Darren. “He said ‘I’m delighted to meet you, my daughter’s been showing me your videos.’ And then he told me that they have these training sessions every Thursday that are really intense and he likes to get all the players calm afterwards so he puts my videos on so everyone can have a laugh.

“To me, as a Liverpool supporter, or just a football fan in general, it was one of the biggest compliments ever.”

For Darren, being in the company of his idols has become an almost everyday occurrence since he shot to fame via YouTube with his takes on everyone from Steven Gerrard to John Bishop.

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He replaced his day job as a landscape gardener with celebrity parties, TV appearances and PAs, travelling around the world to share his repertoire of familiar voices.

And now, with more than 3.5million video views to his name, he has plans to widen his appeal even further by going from Premiership into parody.

He’s started by adding spoofs of Benefits Street (he does White Dee) and Gogglebox and has ambitions to stretch himself even further.

“I’m known as a football impressionist, and I’ll always love doing that, but I want to be a Jack of all trades and show I can do more,” says Darren. “I want to do more spoofs and satire and my own characters like Harry Enfield does.

“I’ve only been doing this for five years and I feel like I’m nowhere near my peak.”

With demand for his uncanny mimicry coming in from all over the world, 28-year-old Darren admits he can’t quite believe his luck – especially as it all began with a Sunday morning trip to his local shop in Kensington.

“I’d been out with my mates the night before to town, and on the Sunday my mum said ‘go and get some bacon and some bread’,” he remembers. “I went to the newsagents and my friend was working there. He said to me ‘My girlfriend’s a massive football fan, will you do a few impressions on my phone for her?’

“I used to do Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and David Beckham, just for my mates as a bit of a party piece, so I did them and he recorded me in the shop, with the Coco Pops behind me.

“I forgot all about it but then about two months later I got a text off another friend saying ‘Darren, is that you on the video on YouTube that’s had about a million hits?

“I didn’t know what he was talking about, we didn’t have a computer and I didn’t even know what YouTube was. So I went out and got one, I went halves with my mum’s fella, and after that it just went berserk.

“So I owe it all to my mum Debbie really,” he laughs, “if she hadn’t wanted that bacon I wouldn’t be here today!”

Within days, Darren was fielding calls from Sky Sports and other TV shows and by Christmas he was entertaining the Liverpool players at their party in Circo.

“I’d been at work in the day and then at night I was with Gerrard, Rafa Benitez, Torres and the rest of them,” he says. “These were my heroes, I’d never met one of them before, and there I was mixing with them as their guest. And I had to do their voices in front of them, which was crazy because I really didn’t want to offend them even though I was doing these exaggerated caricatures.”

Darren says since then he’s got to know the Reds’ playing and coaching staff and they’ve always been happy to be on the receiving end.

“I got invited to do the Football Federation Awards at the Emirates in December and when I got there they put me on the Liverpool FC table,” he says. “I was sitting eating my dinner when Luis Suarez came and sat next to me. It was one of the most bizarre nights I’ve ever had, talking to Luis Suarez and his wife about my kids and his kids. This is one of the greatest footballers on the planet and I’m one of the biggest fans, and in my head I was thinking, I can’t believe this is happening.

“But when I got up on stage, he was laughing more than anyone at the gig. I was just looking at him the whole time. I might as well have said ‘er are, Luis lad, here’s another one ...’”

Since signing with Steven Fletcher’s 20ten Entertainment agency three years ago, Darren has devoted all his time to improving his characters and material. Even at home, with partner Kaylee and children Jack and Lily, he says he finds it hard to switch off.

“Whoever I’m working on, I’ll walk around the house and be that person,” he says. “My girlfriend finds it a bit strange when I go into the kitchen and ask for a cup of tea as Brendan Rodgers!”

He’s passionate about every detail of every personality, watching hours of footage to pick up mannerisms fans might miss.

His dream would be to play Steven Gerrard in a film of his life. “I’d have to lose a bit of weight, I’ll admit that,” he laughs, patting his stomach. “I’m a big lad. Big boned my mum says.”

As for extending his catalogue of characters, the ardent Reds supporter has added Roberto Martinez and Ross Barkley this season, although he admits there is one who got away.

“I honestly can’t do David Moyes,” he grins. “But he’s not going to be in football much longer so it doesn’t matter ...”